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AUTHOR
TITLE
PUB DATE
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Iona, Ma.lo
School Texts, a Source of Misinformation.
Feb 71
7p.; Paper presented at the American Association of
Physics Teachers Meeting, February 1971, New York

EDRS PRICE
DESCRIPTORS

MF-$0.65 HC-$3.29
*Physics; Resource Materials; *Secondary School
Science; Textbook Content; *Textbook Evaluation

ABSTRACT

The author's stated purpose is to promote greater

efforts to prevent the use of so much erroneous material in the
schools under the name of science and physics. Two texts are chosen
as examples, "Modern Physics" 5th Edition by (Dull) Williams,
Metcalfe, Trinklein, and Lefler, and the "Pathways in Science" series
by Oxenhorn. Specific errors are cited by page number and the
corrections indicated. A request is made for more involvement on the
part of physicists in correcting and preventing such errors in
textbooks. (TS)

talk at the
several people have asked me for a copy of
cs Teachers,
Annual Meeting of the American Association cf Ph
February 1, 1971 in New York.
I have therefore, put the material that wes projected on
the screen in written form.

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Physicists could increase thein impact on science

teachine by using their influence to see that inadequate
Some college
school books are improved or not used.
teachers even lend their names and prestige as eoauthore
without taking any responsibility for what is being written,
:asewill. be obvious from some of the examplea presented._
The book reviewers in our journals have the responeibility
to be truthful and warn against books that are full of misinformation. The school teachers cannot be eXpected to_
correct the material oresented in presumably atthonitative
books. We can inform the teachers and scho61 administrators
about poor books. Editors are often not awareof the ineptness of their writers. Fortunately, studentt will
forget much of the misinformation and no perManent harm
may result. Eeverthe/ess, it seems that much Of the misinformation is propagated; many books publish the same
mistakes, and it is unlikely that they reinVent the same
errors. How can students appreciate that sdience is a
rational enterprise, that reasoning pays off., When there
is no logical relation possible between inciars'ect or meaning-less statements? Are so many students and teaehers afraid
of science because the incorrect presentation defies
ero be Published in AJP)
reasoning?

I believe we ought to make greater efforts to prevent the

use of so much erroneous material in the schools under the name
of science and physics.
Of course, this is not a new problem. The physics community
has tried to do something about the teaching in the sch&ols by
getting deeply involved in the preparation of new curricula.
That does not, however, remove traditional teaching material or
other innovative programs which often are not guided by subject
matter experts.

I have chosen pr marily two books as examples. One is a

very popular high school text in its 5th edition. Modern 2hm:fs'
by Mull) Williams, Metcalf, Trinklein and LefTer has a college
physicist as co-author. There is enough brainpower, manpower,
time and money behind such a book to produce a fairly accurate
book. I am convinced some of the authors know better, but
apparently they allow their names to be used without really
taking any responsibility. The few examples that I will discuss
ere by no means exhaustive, and I am not the only one who finds
faults. There are in preparation several quotations from this
book by other contributors for the "would you believe
It is unfortunate that even
column in The Physics Teacher.
book reviewers in our AAPT journals praise such a book as "an
excellent text," "presenting a rigorous tr atment of mechanics,"
MPT 7, 295 E1969) .

The other examples will be taken from a series of paper

back books for slow learners in Junior high schools, mithKsx2 in
Science by Oxenhorn. The first book of this series, which is
no better or worse than the others, was unfortunately described
in a recent book review in The Physics Teacher as "The correct
terms are used and the physics seems to be accurate.
CTPT q, 411 C/970). The few examples that will be di cussed
represent a very small fraction of the wrong and misleading
statements in these books. These books present an excellent
source of ideas for wrong choices for multiple choice questions.
I have invited some of the authors and publashers of these
books and hope they are nresent to defend their books, explain
why such errors seem unavoidable, and tell us how physicists
can help.
Apparently one of the problems is that the publishers are
n t even aware of the shortcomings. They frequently have their
own experts and consultants in whom they believe, and they
resent the Gpinions of othe s. One publisher seemed surprised

when some of the errors were called to his attention and wr te

"Perhaps we should have had the manuscript read by physici
as well," and not only by specialists in science education.
The users and the book selectors in the school eystems
apparently are not aware of the many errors either, or they have
found that more correct books have other even more undesirable
features. The-efore, it is up to the physicists to make every
effort to have these books revised or removed.
Oee can hope that the children will forget the nonsense
they have learned in grade school, although I suspect that the
ymposium on nlementary Education at this meeting will probable
emphasize that that ia the age where concepts and attitudes are
being established.
At the high school, level it is probably also true that mueh
will be forgotten. There seems to be some eviOence, however,
_that the misconceptions college students have are the same as
It is difficult to believe
the pnes which these books promote.
that each generation pg students develops theee misconceptions
independently,
Physics is a rational subject. Uow can we expect the
students to think if the source material ,zresents such illogical
and incomprehensible, inconsistent material.

We often cite as one of the problems of physics teaching

the inadequate training of many teachers who teach high school
physics. Why then give them such impossible material.? It is no
wonder that teachers and students become discouraged with physics.
Under the circumstances they have to resort to memorizing what
is presented as facts because the logical relations are Obscurred
by the presentation. We cannot expect tc have a scientifically
literate population if our children are brought up on such
nonsense. One should not encourage the students in their attitude
that words don't mean anything anyway.

4
As you will see, in addition.to many careless mistakes
which a careful reader might be able to correct, there are many
real misconceptions and poor logic.
I have concentrated in this presentation on iLems that pccur
in diagrams and short paragraphs but many more involved sectiops
of misrepresentations can be found.
Examples.
"The xrath tajcen by an independent N pole in a magnetic field
This ignores the fact that
is called a line of flu.;c" 3-473*).
an object already in motion will, due to its momentum, in general
not follow El path given by the direction of the force.

A similar error is made in describing the frictional force

motion. M53)
"opposite to the force producing
Sliding friction is oPposite to the velocity no matter what other
forces are acting.
.

Careless instruction to the draftsman and poor proofreading

account for describing the electromagnet in a mass spectrograph
as a charase coil 04- 585) Cto match the description of tho charged
deflection plates).
"The total
The conservation law of momentum is stated a
momentum of the system is_zerof instead of constant, without any
reference to the center of mass system (M-666).

Similarily the conservation laW of leptons is stated that

e2 the lepton number is zero on each side of
"the awslgatmgM^
the equation" (31-666) which should be stated as "the same."
In discussing the efficiency of a Carnot engine the authors
confuse the heat supplied during an isothermal expansion wlth
the internal eneryy at that temverature and use this as an
argument to set the heat proportional to the temperature CM-214 .
In discussing the re/ativi tic limitation of a cyclotron,
it is stated "This incressed mass slows doWn the particles,"
confusing a smaller acceleration with a deceleration - a decree e

References are to page number. M: Vicdern Physics by %I.E. Williams,

Holt,
.
n.c. Metcalfe; F.E. Trinklein, R.W. Le er
1968.
Rinehart and Winston, Inc.

(Possibly they mean decrease of angular

of speed. (A-589)
velocitv, but that should be expressed more clearly.)

Quantities of different nature are compared in stating that

the force of gravitational attraction (on a ...arge drop of mercury
on a flat surface) is greater than the surface tension" (4-191).
A water surfa e Ln a cap 17ary is shown mn an unintelligible
way.

(m-191).

The action of a magnifying glass is illustrated with what

appears to be a partial ray diagram, showing the image on the
wrong side of the lens (P-3-136)**
A convex lens is shown to make a parallel beam of light
diverging, but it still corrects for ,_he farsighted dyd (7F-3-134).
A diagram to show "how images mre formed" by means of mirrors
shows lines that might ba light rays, but they show no change in
direction at the mirror although they are obviously not normal
to the mirror surface (P-3-120).
The center of mass of a truck is shown repeatedly at the
top of the load in the truck AO matter how much the truck is
loaded (P-2-66).

A diagram of a loudspeaker shows the paper cone filled with

ca b n grains (to match the microphone?) ;P-3-70).
The socket for a light bulb is shown in a way so as to
cause a short circuit, and a choke is inserted in a light circuit
for no apparent reason J-3-157 1.
In describing that a heavier weight lifts a smaller weight
by means of a string passing over a pulley fastened to the
ceiling, the transfer of potential energy from one to the other
is attributed to kinetic energy (P-2-34).
Refe ences to volume and page number
in Science by J. M. Oxenhorn (e:aL2 Globe Book
EsLthy.,
P:
Co. 1968-1970.

eculiar qualific tions are introduced in the consevtion law

of energy by stating that "Energy can neither be created nor
destroyed hy2yaxzy_l_ai means" and that "the total am:Ault of the
(P-2-39)
worlds energy remains almost the same."

ergy seems
The distinction of potential energy and kinetic
to take the form that one is "waiting" and the othelc does the
real work." CP-2-30), and one wonders how a flywheel. might enter
the discussion.
(9-l-93)
There are cases of inconsistent current direct Or
nts
and wrong directions oif the magnetic field arouna Qvg
_1-92) and inconsistent use of the marking of magpet needles
in compasses Cblack - north?) CP-1-76). Three dimensl nal
magnets have only two dimensional fields (P-l-76).

It 3s claimed that the pole user the geographic a

a magnetic north pole CP I SO).

th pole

In an experimnnt to explain the e 'fect of using two dry

cells instead of one on the strength of an ele tromeenet, the
length of the magnet and the number of turns a G chongsd
simultaneously, and the maennet is shown as hat/ n i5 ereatest
crength at the center (P-1-94).

achers to
We are exp,cting too much if we leave it to the
recognize and correct the errors. I know that I frequently do
not take the time because it interrupts the discuss/on and seems
to put the emphasis on peripheral topics. In addition, at the
lower grades we canant expect the teacher, who has vo be an
expert in so many arent4, to be sufficiently familiax' with the
subject matter to contradict the textbook authorities.

Since consumer legislation has non advanced to the s age

where one could sue authors and publishers or school system
using such books, for malpractice, it is up to us to tell
teachers and science supervisors that we do not appeove o the

use of such books and to publicise whenever pc,ssible the shor

comings of these texts. Maybe we can offer our services as
consult nts to publishers and take the responsibility seriously.
X would like to invite you to contribute to the "Would you
.?" column by sending in, with or without comments,
beliews
error quotations from textbooks.

Wscussi
It was pointed out that the physics discussed in-Earth
Science texts is even m re e roneous than what is found in
physics texts.
One of the coauthors of Modern Physics expressed his
appreciation for having errors pointed out before the new
edition goes into print.